Interventions for central giant cell granuloma of the jaws

The central giant cell granuloma (CGCG) of the jaws is a rare benign tumour of the mandible (lower jaw) and the maxilla (upper jaw) characterized by destruction of the bone, loss of symmetry of the face and displacement of teeth and tooth germs, especially in younger patients. Aggressive types of tumours are usually expansive and rapidly grow, causing pain, bleeding, and displaced and loose teeth. The management of CGCG can include conventional surgery with or without medical adjunctive treatment or resection in-bloc for the aggressive variant. Although the most common therapy is surgical curettage, the high recurrence rate, especially in aggressive lesions, has raised concern and led to a search for other treatment options. This review compared primary non-surgical interventions versus primary surgical or other treatments. Although a number of therapies have been proposed for treating central giant cell granuloma of the jaws, our review did not identify evidence from randomised controlled trials to support their use. Our review only identified one study comparing calcitonin to placebo. No significant difference in the proportion of patients with increased volume of more than 10% of the tumour compared to the pretreatment measurement at 3 months of follow-up was found between both groups.